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Regulating Search Engines: Taking Stock and Looking Ahead

May 31, 2006

Authored by

The use of search engines has become almost as important as e-mail as a
primary online activity. Arguably, search engines are among the most
important gatekeepers in today's digitally networked environment. Thus,
it does not come as a surprise that the evolution of search technology
and the diffusion of search engines have been accompanied by a series
of conflicts among stakeholders such as search operators, content
creators, consumers/users, activists, and governments.

This
paper outlines the history of the technological evolution of search
engines and explores the responses of the U.S. legal system to the
search engine phenomenon in terms of both litigation and legislative
action. The analysis reveals an emerging law of search engines. As the
various conflicts over online search intensify, heterogeneous policy
debates have arisen concerning what forms this emerging law should
ultimately take. This paper offers a typology of the respective policy
debates, sets out a number of challenges facing policy-makers in
formulating search engine regulation, and concludes by offering a
series of normative principles which should guide policy-makers in this
endeavor.